Numbers that count in 2009

PHUKET RICH LIST

Phuket’s top five wealthiest villa owners named by real estate blog www.thephuketinsider.com:

1 New Zealand’s wealthiest brothers, Richard and Christopher Chandler (one brother formerly CEO of the Sovereign Group) with a fortune valued at over US$2 billion, according to Forbes

2 Canadian Robert Friedland of Ivanhoe Energy and Mines, with a net worth of US$1.4 billon

3 Hong Kong’s Allan Zeman, regarded as the father of Lang Kwai Fong. His personal worth remains undisclosed, but he’s ranked among Asia’s most wealthy businessmen

4 Finnish Formula One star Kimi Raikkonen is the latest addition. Earning some US$44 million per year, he’s ranked by Forbes as the fifth highest paid sports star

5 The British Binatone Founder Gulu Lalvani rounds out the list with his globetrotting celebrity status and multi-million dollar personal fortune.

NATURAL TRIVIA

13,000 ant species. Thousands more, it is thought, are yet to be discovered.

10% Weight of entire ant family as a percentage of the planet’s total biomass (equal to total human biomass).

10,000 trillion
Estimate of global ant population, outnumbering any other kind of animal.

BIG WEALTH IN BIG CHINA

825,000 Number of people in China, according to the Hurun 2009 Wealth Report, with a personal wealth of more than 10 million yuan (USD1.46 million) – that’s one in every 1,700 Chinese. 51,000 individuals own more than 100 million yuan.

82 Percentage of Chinese millionaires who felt their lifestyle hadn’t been affected by the current financial crisis.

Power Numbers

Standout digits from the April 2009-released The Wall Street Journal Guide To…Power Travel by Scott McCartney (HarperCollins, US$16.99)

One billion Number of passengers that US airlines will carry in 2016, as predicted by the Federal Aviation Administration.

One billion Revenue earned by American, the largest frequent flyer programme in the world, from the issuance in 2007 of 200 billion frequent flyer miles.

17 million Number of travel insurance policies sold each year, on average, in the US. Sales have doubled since 9/11.

Bed Jump

More than 20,000 people on 7 May jumped simultaneously on the biggest beds in the world, created in Shanghai (pictured), Paris, London and New York, to set the record for the world’s biggest bed-jump and to mark IHG hotel group’s five million free nights giveaway. Six tonnes of steel, 1,000 kilograms of wood and 200,000 nuts and bolts went into making the colossal beds.